1. Field of Invention
The current invention relates generally to apparatus, systems and methods for wireless communication. More particularly, the apparatus, systems and methods relate to protecting wireless communication networks from dynamic interference. Specifically, the apparatus, systems and methods enable communications in the un-used spectrum also referred to as White Spaces while interfacing with various entities such as sensing, policies, database, etc. in the network and meeting the regulatory requirements.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional commercial wireless communications networks are vulnerable to dynamic interference environment. Interference may affect a variety of communications systems. Today's wireless networks also need to protect the incumbent systems which may already be operating on the given frequency bands. Hence, they need to detect the presence of these legitimate incumbent systems and vacate the spectrum if required. Previous wireless networks often do not have the intelligence to autonomously move to other un-occupied frequency bands or alter their bandwidth. Large amounts of resources have already been invested by many commercial operators in building these radio systems which are currently not dynamic spectrum access (DSA) enabled. In order to make the current radios cognitive, it will require more investment from the commercial carriers.
In more detail, it is generally believed that there is ample radio frequency (RF) spectrum available to meet the global demand for voice, video and data. For instance, based on measurements of the average spectrum usage in multiple different markets, it has been found that more than 80% of the available spectrum is under-utilized. Most of the current spectrum has been allocated using a command and control licensing structure where a few selected entities are in charge of large swaths of spectrum, many of which are under-utilized. The most relevant example is that of broadcast television (TV) spectrum where signals are normally transmitted over the air at VHF and UHF frequencies. In rural markets, TV channels often go unused due to limited demand. In urban markets, the majority of people have started receiving their TV transmission either using cable or optical fiber. Many countries are making a transition towards Digital TV (DTV) where signals occupy much smaller bandwidths as compared to their analog counterparts. These factors lead to large and increasing amounts of spectrum that are allocated to broadcast services but are locally unused. This vacant spectrum may be opportunistically accessed to transmit broadband data in case it can be established that such a use causes no harmful interference to the allocated (incumbent) broadcast services.
Technology already exists to allow opportunistic usage of RF spectrum. Such opportunistic use of spectrum is often called dynamic spectrum access (DSA). Programs such as the neXt Generation (XG) Communications have proven that DSA techniques can allow access to channels allocated to incumbent users without harmful interference to the incumbent. The concept of cognitive radio also seems to be feasible. Cognitive radios are defined as radios that are capable of sensing their surrounding environment and altering their transmission parameters to more optimally utilize the existing resources, such as RF spectrum, to meet current user needs. Some have even proposed combining DSA techniques with machine learning techniques to make better usage of the system resources while avoiding interference.
The future points to multitudes of such DSA enabled cognitive radio devices using a variety of different waveforms and protocols, co-existing, in cognitive networks to make the best possible use of the available spectrum. The word co-existence here is of importance since competing technologies will result in different types of waveforms and protocols being employed for various types of services. These diverse waveforms and protocols will need to share spectral resources without harming each other, hence, the need for co-existence. Some of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards working groups such as IEEE 802.15.2 have defined the term co-existence as the “ability of one system to perform a task in a given shared environment where other systems have an ability to perform their tasks and may or may not be using the same set of rules.”
The IEEE 802.22 standard is directed to wireless regional area networks (WRANs) that use white spaces (unused bandwidth) in the television broadcasting bands without interfering with other users. The standard is largely based on concepts underpinning the cognitive radio.
The P1900.1 Standard defined the term Cognitive Radio as:
A. A type of Radio in which communication systems are aware of their environment and internal state and can make decisions about their radio operating behavior based on that information and predefined objectives.
B. Cognitive Radio (as defined in A) that utilizes radio, adaptive radio, and other technologies to automatically adjust its behavior or operations to achieve desired objectives.
Cognitive radios generally include spectrum sensing, access to an incumbent or primary user database, geo-location of the users, subscriber registration and tracking, spectrum management as well as spectrum mobility and sharing. Spectrum management generally involves reasoning and decision making for utilization of the best part of the spectrum to meet user quality of service (QoS) requirements and using it without harmful interference to other users. Spectrum mobility and sharing allow for maintaining seamless communications when transitioning from one part of the spectrum to another (e.g., dynamic spectrum access, dynamic frequency selection, frequency hopping, etc.), and strive for fairness in spectrum allocation.
To this end, cognitive radios and networks sharing common bandwidth have to effectively self-coexist with one another and also ensure that no harmful interference is caused to the primary users or the incumbents by accessing different parts of the available spectrum in a fairly distributed manner. Executing such self-coexistence and spectrum management is not trivial. Moreover, conventional co-existence techniques require changes in the concept of communication system operation, thereby resulting in legacy systems not being inter-operable with systems requiring co-existence.
Behind the learning, reasoning and decision-making process lays an entity that embodies the intelligence of a cognitive radio network. This entity is responsible for interfacing with many different awareness processes in the cognitive radio network such as spectrum sensing, interface to the incumbent or primary user database, geo-location of various users or subscribers, subscriber registration and tracking, channel set management, co-existence, scheduling quiet periods, interface to the regulatory domain dependent policies, etc. This entity is referred to using many different names such as ‘Cognitive Engine’, ‘Spectrum Manager (SM)’, ‘System Strategy Reasoner (SSR)’, etc. The IEEE 802.22 Standard refers to this entity as the Spectrum Manager (SM). The SM may reside in a single node in a network, or it can be distributed across the network resulting in distributed decision-making. In certain cases, when such an entity resides in a single node in the network, that node may be called a Control Node or a Base Station (BS). For example, in the IEEE 802.22 system, the SM resides at the BS and is logically connected to Spectrum Sensing Automatons (SSAs), incumbent database service, policies, geo-location devices, etc. over a wireless connection, a wired connection, a fiber optic connection, or a combination thereof. Spectrum Sensing Automatons are the driver programs attached to the Spectrum Sensing Functions (SSF) in a Cognitive Radio network. It is envisioned that each radio with a SSF will also have a SSA. Even though current radios have some cognitive abilities, better radios are still desired.